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Pembina Institute urges Alberta government to get aggressive in curbing oilsands emissions

A new report from the Pembina Institute says if Alberta wants to reduce criticism of oilsands development, it needs to roll out a more aggressive policy to curb emissions.

At the moment, companies that don’t meet their emissions reduction target are fined $15 per tonne.

British Columbia’s so-called carbon tax is $30 per tonne while in Norway it’s $71.

The institute’s P.J. Partington tells 660News, levies in Alberta should be increased to $150 per tonne by 2020.

“I mean a lot of people are very legitimately concerned that we’re not doing enough to tackle oilsands emissions,” says Partington, “and an ambitious policy would hopefully put a lot of those concerns to rest. A lot more needs to be done if we are going to live up to our committments, and really take the oil and gas sector in a direction it needs to go to adjust to the new low carbon world.”

Partington says Alberta shouldn’t wait for Ottawa to act to address climate change issues because it’s responsible for the resource, not the federal goverment.